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3 min read

6 Ways to Automate Manufacturing Processes

Nancy Phillippi Nov 5, 2020 12:00:00 AM

Automate Manufacturing Processes

In an efficient and productive manufacturing shop, there is a flow that connects every process. Modern manufacturing systems connect the entire company together so that all employees who need access to critical data have it at their fingertips. Shop floor operators appreciate how a modern ERP solution like Acumatica works the way they think. It’s intuitive and easy to learn whether you’re in accounting or on the shop floor. Each individual step of the manufacturing process is laid out in Acumatica and interactive so you can see high-level or detailed information down to the tiniest widget.

SEE ON DEMAND MANUFACTURING WEBINAR BELOW...

Watch this recording below to see how you save time and money with a streamlined modern ERP manufacturing solution like Acumatica.

  1. Production Order in Process
  2. Bill of Materials and MRP Automation
  3. Production Orders
  4. Make-to-Stock Automation
  5. Make to Order Automation
  6. MRP/Reports

We show two of the most common scenarios for Make to Stock (MTS) and Make to Order in the Acumatica Manufacturing Edition. Acumatica also supports Engineer to Order (ETO), Configure to Order (CTO), and will soon support batch-process manufacturing.

Make to Stock (MTS) –  Inventory min/max, sales demand and forecasts are used to create the suggested purchases and production recommendations can be aggregated if desired in MRP or materials requirement planning.  You can decide to follow the suggestions or make your own product decision.  Production orders are released and labor and raw materials/components can be entered for WIP or you can backflush to create finished goods. Inventory is costed appropriately and sold.  

Make to Order (MTO) –  In this environment, customers place an order for a  product that is usually a custom item.  These types of orders can create the need for other processes too such as engineering design, sourcing of new materials, determining a cost, etc.  One option is to consider the use of the Acumatica projects module. Many customers use these types of orders.  Projects are an umbrella that works with other modules such as purchasing, production, and time and expenses.  You can use Projects to track all the costs for R& D, etc.  Of course, Projects is just one option and would be beneficial for some manufacturers.  With Acumatica you have the ability to make a production order from the sales order, but based on my experience that rarely happens.  The order still goes through production planning and MRP for purchasing materials as outlined above in the make-to-stock overview.  

Presented by Clients First Business Solutions’ Monika Stuber, Acumatica Sales Engineer, Bob Turner, Sales, and Nancy Phillippi, Senior Sales (39-minutes)

In addition to what we showed in this high-level demo, Acumatica also offers the following:

  1. Estimating to create a quick and detailed manufacturing estimate
  2. The product configurator is a rule-based system that allows manufacturers to configure and build custom products to order
  3. The engineering change control feature with the purpose to control changes to your bill of materials
  4. Acumatica offers advanced scheduling allowing customers to manage and monitor the shop floor schedule.  

 Why Manufacturers Choose Clients First Business Solutions

We help you modernize your manufacturing software to maximize manufacturing operations efficiency and profitability. We understand each type of manufacturing operation (discrete and process, job shops or ETO/MTO) has unique requirements.  Also, within each company, there are even more unique business processes between departments and individual job functions. Choosing a trusted partner that understands your industry and your budget should be the first step in manufacturing ERP software search. 

  1. Industry expertise and experience - We have multiple Senior-level personnel that has 200+ years of combined experience with ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software. Our experience helps produce faster implementations, thus less technical interruptions, as we do not learn the software on our clients' time.
  2. Team approach - Our team consists of consultants who specialize in Finance, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, MRO, Job Shop and Projects. We pull in the right specialists to help get you where you need to go.
  3. Formulated and proven implementation methodology - We save your company time and money with a customer portal to track your budget, timeline and task tracking.  We have options for flexible application deployment in addition to on-premise, cloud or hybrid (a mix of on-premise and cloud) software installation.
  4. ERP software implementation project management - You are assigned a Project Manager and a Senior Consultant to manage your implementation. We handle multi-site/multi-country implementations if needed. (Project Managers are assigned to implementations with over 50 system users. Smaller projects are assigned based on the complexity of the requirements.) 
  5. Training and Support - We offer Technical Mentoring for your team through initial and ongoing maintenance, training & support.
  6. Customer references - Our strong references with long-time customers from Manufacturing, MRO, and Services industries represent our dedication and passion to helping our clients.  

We’re an Acumatica Gold Partner representing Acumatica Cloud ERP, and a Microsoft Gold ERP Partner, and a Certified Cloud Service Provider (CSP). Clients First Texas helps manufacturing firms leverage ERP solutions to help grow their companies. 

 

Contact Us: Email: Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas or call us at 800.331.8382. We're located in Dallas, Texas.  We service companies in the U.S. and worldwide.